Two eras of Serra hoops make noise in SF Bay Area Pro-Am

“Ryan and I were talking together … ‘Ryan, it’s going to be a long rebound, you’re going to have to be the one that comes up and grabs it,’” Caruso said.

The scene at Kezar Pavilion felt familiar, like something out of Serra boys’ basketball coach Chuck Rapp’s strategy-intensive timeouts at Morton Family Gymnasium. That’s because Caruso and Pettis are both born from the Serra brotherhood. Only, the two certainly never played together, as they are a generation apart, with Caruso a 2013 graduate of the San Mateo private school, while Pettis, an incoming senior this year, belongs to the class of 2024.

The two Serra greats connected this summer through the SF Pro-Am, though, and struck up an immediate kinship. It’s just the connection South Bay head coach Ari Warmerdam was looking for when he insisted Caruso return to the South Bay roster this season.

“It was special for me and the group to know there was two Serra legends old and new,” Warmerdam said. “And there were several plays where they connected. ... Hopefully this can continue for a number of years going forward.”

The caveat to Caruso’s strategy powwow with Pettis coming out of the fourth-quarter timeout late in the July 31 Pro-Am playoff opener was Pettis nearly didn’t play in the second half of the game. After getting shaken up in the first half with a leg injury, he only returned to the court after lobbying to play in the halftime locker room.

Pettis’ return ultimately sealed the playoff victory, as the 6-3 guard did, in fact, grab a long rebound of Bay Pride’s missed 3.

“He really fought through [the injury],” Caruso said, “and I think it showed a great level of toughness for him.”

South Bay went on to be eliminated Aug. 3 with a 107-85 loss to Dream Team, wrapping up a season that saw Pettis emerge as one of the youngest players in the summer league. Amazingly, it was his second season with the team — a season in which he started every game — this after a 2022 season when he was unequivocally the league’s youngest player.

“Pettis did awesome,” Caruso said. “It’s a great testament to him and his hard work and the talent he has, and that he’s going to continue to develop. ... After the summer with him, I’m just really impressed.”

Caruso has previously played in the Pro-Am, but he hasn’t been a regular in quite some time. This year he played in five of South Bay’s nine games, his most since 2015, the last time the team captured the Pro-Am championship.

This year, Caruso was forced to skip South Bay’s Aug. 3 playoff loss due to a prior commitment on the FIBA 3x3 World Tour, the three-on-three outdoor basketball league, that the 28-year-old joined in May.

Caruso flew to China last week to take part in a tournament with Team Princeton, named for Caruso’s alma mater. Since joining the World Tour, he has also played in France, Canada and Israel, while playing several domestic tourneys, including in Los Angeles and Las Vegas. He is now set to travel to Switzerland for his next World Tour tournament, opening Aug. 18.

“It’s crazy,” Caruso said. “You go play at these places for two days at a time and then you’re jet setting to the next spot.”

With a prize-money reward per tournament, World Tour rankings are calibrated using advanced performance metrics per team, and per individual.

Team Princeton is currently 17th in the team rankings, while Caruso ranks 87th overall in the international individual rankings, and No. 13 in the U.S., though he said he has earned the second most points this year among U.S. individuals since joining the league late, in May. Only Team Miami’s Jimmer Fredette has more since then, Caruso said.

Caruso — who debuted on the World Tour May 6, the same day as the Kentucky Derby; “I remember watching it right after the game,” he said — is now dreaming big. With 3x3 basketball being added to the Summer Olympics in 2020, Caruso is intent on competing for a spot on the U.S. team in the 2024 Games in Paris.

“It was always a dream but probably a far-off dream,” Caruso said of the Olympics. “I would say with the 3-on-3, there’s definitely more of a shot.”

Since his All-West Catholic Athletic League senior year at Serra — a glory age of Bay Area high school basketball, that saw Aaron Gordon playing his senior year at Mitty, and another local great, Michael Smith, a senior at El Camino — Caruso, who Rapp has long proclaimed as the best ever to play for him with the Padres, has stayed plenty busy.

The 6-4 forward went on to earn All-Ivy League honors at Princeton before transferring to Santa Clara University as a senior. He has since played four professional seasons overseas, one in Italy and three more in the Dutch Basketball League in the Netherlands.

So, his return to the Pro-Am this summer was a welcome addition.

“I think it’s a great way for him to stay in shape and compete against the best players when he’s here at home,” Warmerdam said. “Given the level he’s playing at, he was motivated to keep up that level, and use this as an avenue to continue to get better.”